FAISALABAD, May 26: The All-Pakistan Private Schools Alliance has threatened to stage protest demonstrations and observe hunger strikes against the Tehsil Municipal Administration's plan to impose heavy taxes.

Speaking at a news conference here on Wednesday, APPSA chairman Sadaqat Hussain and secretary-general Rana Tahir Saleem Khan said that private schools' owners had been facing innumerable problems due to the imposition of 11 different taxes and duties.

They claimed that at present, the private institutions were paying income tax, old-age benefits, property tax, professional tax, social security tax, publicity tax, commercial building fee, schools inspection fee, Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education inspection fee, and some other taxes to the district and provincial governments.

Now the city TMA planned to levy a professional tax ranging Rs5,000 to Rs20,000 on private schools, they said. The office-bearers claimed that the TMA had declared the schools "dangerous business", which was highly unjustified and uncalled for.

If this tax was not immediately withdrawn, the owners of the private schools would set up a hunger strike camp at the Clock Tower Intersection and stage rallies, the office-bearers said.

The APPSA office-bearers alleged that the provincial government was playing in the hands of some anti-education people. It was also launching half-baked policies at the cost of the future of young generation.

For instance, the decision of the provincial government to bar the private schools from collecting three-month fee for the summer vacation in advance was also wrong, they claimed.

They urged Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to hold a meeting with owners of private schools so that they could apprise him of their problems.